{% include "includes/auth/janrain/signIn_traditional.html" with message='It looks like you are already verified. If you still have trouble signing in, you probably need a new confirmation link email.' %}

Health Care District to hold first meeting in its new $9 million headquarters

The Health Care District meets for the first time today in its new headquarters, the former bank building at Florida Mango and 10th Avenue North in Palm Springs.

In 2009 the special taxing district agreed to pay a California real estate investment firm $5.79 million for the mostly vacant four-story building, once a regional headquarters for Washington Mutual. The health district spent another $3.2 million on renovations.

At nearly 100,000 square feet, it’s significantly larger than needed. The district is renting out one floor. The sellers had paid $7.5 million in 2007.

Board members have said owning the building would save taxpayers in the long run. They praised the building’s ample parking and mass transit access. Visitors have been forced to pay for parking ramp or metered space at the downtown Datura Street office space it has been renting since the ’80s.

Broker Douglas Mandel of Marcus & Millichap handled the sale to the district. He had worked with former board chairman Jonathan Satter on a prior real estate transaction, Satter disclosed. Former board member Patrick DiSalvo also said he had been a “passive investor” in that same deal, which was not identified.

The district leaves its former quarters on Datura Street with nearly a year remaining on its lease. Landlord American Commercial Realty maintains that the district is still responsible for about $1 million in rent. The lease expires in August 2012.

Seated at the new dais will be three new board members, two of whom were just appointed by Gov. Rick Scott.

Philip Ward III, a West Palm Beach-based banking and commercial transaction lawyer, is a small-government conservative who questions whether government should be spending the public’s property tax dollars on programs that weren’t explicitly listed in the referendum that created the agency 22 years ago.

Scott also appointed Nancy Banner, a Palm Beach Gardens real estate attorney, to the district board.

Also new is county appointee Brian Lohmann. Mr. Lohmann is Supervisor of Accounting at the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida.

Today’s meeting begins at 2 p.m. The agenda is light, with a vote planned on the formation of a committee to study replacing the district’s trauma helicopter fleet, which was purchased in 1999.

The annual block grant to the county office of the Florida Department of Health will come up as well. The proposed amount, $4.7 million, is the same as last year.

A feasibility study to look into pulling the trigger on a contract to erect medical offices next to Lakeside Medical Center in Belle Glade had been on in the works but did not ultimately make today’s agenda.